Railway draft-rigging



J. Fi. MITCHELL RAILWAY DRAFT HIGGINS.

APPLICATION FILED 0cT,`I8. I9I5.

Patened'ept. :53, i919.

@SMI

JOHN R. MITCHELL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM I-I. MINER, OF CHAZY, NEW YORK.

RAILWAY DRAFT-HIGGING.

Application filed October 18, 1915.

To all whom/t may concern:

Be it known that I, JoHN R. MITCHELL, a citizen of the United States, residing` at Chi cago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and nseful- Improvement in Railway Draft-Rigw ging, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference bcing h\ad to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in railway draft riggings.

Objects of the invention are to provide an improved draft rigging'for railway cars, wherein the expense of stop castings is minimized and a minimum number of keys are employed to connect the links with the followers to thereby minimize the slotting of the draft sills.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification, Figurel is a longitudinal, sectional view of a draft rigging embodying my improvements, the section being taken ap proximately along the inner face `of the draft sill, which would be nearest the observer. Fig. 2 is a horizontal, sectional view of the parts illustrated in F ig. 1 and taken on the line 2-2 thereof7 the gear being shown in full bud, and Fig. 3 is 'a vertical, transverse sectional view taken substantially on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

In said drawing, 10-10 denote the draft sills between which extends and is secured thereto, at the rea-r of the gear, a stop casting 11 which may loe of any suitable or desired form. Also secured to the inner faces of the draft members are front stop castings 12-12 with which normally engages a. front follower 18. A rear follower 141 is employed, the saine having a rearward eXten-l sion 15 which is normally in 'engagen'ient with the stop casting 11. The followers 13 and 14 are vertically elongated and have interposed therebetween vertical, twin arranged springs lf3-16, the parts being),v snitably supported by means of a saddle plate 17. To connect the draw-bar 18 with the followers I employ the following novel ar rangement. The rear follower 14, on the sides thereof is provided with recesses lil-19, the latter being dared rearwardly as indicated at 20. Side links 21-21 are employed, each of which has an enlarged rcar end 22 which corresponds in shape and size to the flared recess 19. ,The front fol- Specification of Letters Patent.

Eatented Sept. 23, 1919.

serial No. 56,477.

lower 13 is also recessed on its sides, as indicated at 23 to acconmiodate the links 21, the forward ends of the latter being slotted to receive a coupler key 21 which also oxtends through the draw-har, as will be understood. The links 21 are assembled with the rear follower 11 by first placing the rear end of a link to the rear of the follower, then moving the link laterally toward the follower to engage the .link in the recess 19, and finally drawing the link forwardly relatively to the follower to thereby engage the enlarged end 22 in the enlarged portion of the recess 19.

From the precmling, it will be seen that upon forward movement of the draw-bar and links 21, the rear follower will also be moved forwardly. Under buil', the rear follower will be held stationary by the casting 11 and the springs compressed against it by inward movement of the front follower 13.

As clearly indicated i n the drawing, thc recesses in the sides of the rear follower' are partly covered over by {ianges or webs thereby retaining the links in proper position and preventing lateral separation thereof.

From the preceding description, it will be seen that I have provided a detachable con nection between the links and the follower which avoids the necessity of transversely extending keys that have heretofore extended throngh slots in thc draft sills, thereby weakening the latter'. seen that a relatively small amount of metal is required for the stop castings, thereby decreasing the cost of the parts.

Although, I have herein shown and dcscribed what I now consider the preferred embodiment of my invention, the same is merely illustrative and I conteniplate all changes and modifications as come within the scope of the claims appended hereto, and in particular to all modifications of the detachable connection between the links and the rear follower, of which many forms may be employed.

I claim:

1. In a draft rigging, the combination with a follower having laterally opening recesses on the opposite sides thereof, of links detachably connected to said followers on said sides, each of said links having an enlargcd end and said recesses being shaped to correspond to said ends, said follower hav Also, it will be ing flange portions extending over portions of sind recesses and adapted to engage the outer faces oi' sind enlarged ends olf the links 4to prevent the latter from, separation laterally from the follower.

2. In a draft rigging, the Combination with draft sills, front stop-noting ineens, rear stop-noting ineens including en ibutinent block extending transversely between the sills and having n pla-in front abutting face, and e drew bar, of yoke-noting ineens including horizontally extending side mein bers, n` transversely extending coupler lie-y detaehfrbly eonneeting seid drew bar end the miesen side members of removable through slots in the sills, 'shook absorbing ineens, e iront follower, t rear seid yoleneting ineens and' follower out away on the side edges tliereoitl :ind provided with laterally lprojecting horizontal shoulders arranged to support the .rear portions oit said side members of theyele-nei'zing ineens, and transversely extendino' ineens ynessine' under and direetl su)- y 

